Answer in brief
CVE-2026-98796 records a Unknown severity vulnerability in net: ethernet: mtk_eth_soc: allocate dummy netdev sooner. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
A CVSS score is not reported in the current record. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <42001839e425b2564b7297be579073a13a8fddf6 || >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <82be3d08de9e14d5aed72377f051adb4f09fd540 || >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <17eafd74de5a31e30361420a2e3ebf64186b77e5 || >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <6f0c2c4f5e7143eba75153ecc8af3a03f7b6a98b | 42001839e425b2564b7297be579073a13a8fddf6, 82be3d08de9e14d5aed72377f051adb4f09fd540, 17eafd74de5a31e30361420a2e3ebf64186b77e5, 6f0c2c4f5e7143eba75153ecc8af3a03f7b6a98b |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | 4.6 | Not reported |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <efc91ab1d97bd991faf50baa0ead35029f341eb9 || >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <42001839e425b2564b7297be579073a13a8fddf6 || >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <82be3d08de9e14d5aed72377f051adb4f09fd540 || >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <17eafd74de5a31e30361420a2e3ebf64186b77e5 || >=656e705243fd0c2864b89634ea16ed444ef64dc6 <6f0c2c4f5e7143eba75153ecc8af3a03f7b6a98b | efc91ab1d97bd991faf50baa0ead35029f341eb9, 42001839e425b2564b7297be579073a13a8fddf6, 82be3d08de9e14d5aed72377f051adb4f09fd540, 17eafd74de5a31e30361420a2e3ebf64186b77e5, 6f0c2c4f5e7143eba75153ecc8af3a03f7b6a98b |
Published upstream
Oct 18, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Oct 21, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Oct 18, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ethernet: mtk_eth_soc: allocate dummy netdev sooner The RX rings and the shared NAPI are carried by an internal "dummy" netdev (eth->dummy_dev). mtk_probe() creates that dummy device, and adds the shared tx/rx NAPI to it, only after the MAC netdevs have been registered. That order has been there since the MT7623 support was added and leaves a window in which the netdevs are visible to the network core before the shared NAPI and the dummy device exist. If anything brings the first netdev up during that window (e.g. netifd opening the WAN link the instant the interface is registered), the first-open path runs without them. On NETSYS v2 and later SoCs mtk_rx_alloc() -> __xdp_rxq_info_reg() then dereferences eth->dummy_dev == NULL: WARNING: CPU: ... Missing net_device from driver in net/core/xdp.c and mtk_open() fails with -ENODEV. On NETSYS v1 SoCs (MT7621/MT7622/MT7623/MT7629) there is no page pool, so the same open instead calls napi_enable() on a napi_struct that netif_napi_add() has not initialised yet and dereferences a NULL napi->dev. Allocate the dummy netdev and add the shared tx/rx NAPI to it before the register_netdev() loop. Both the dummy-allocation failure and a register_netdev() failure now unwind through mtk_unreg_dev(), which unregisters the net_device notifiers and the netdevs registered so far, stopping a concurrently-opened netdev (ndo_stop) and its NAPI before the dummy carrier is freed. A netdev that opened during the window can also have queued the frame-engine reset worker (via the tx watchdog or phylink), so the probe error path now cancels eth->pending_work before freeing the shared state, as mtk_cleanup() already does on remove.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.